Bow hunting has evolved over the last several centuries from one of the principle food gathering activities of many groups of indigenous Americans to a sport that is normally practiced for relaxation, companionship, and the opportunity to experience the hunting tradition of the human species. While firearms can deliver a higher velocity high mass projectile over a longer range than a bow, many sportsmen continue hunting with the bow and arrow, finding that it is more satisfying than otherwise similar hunting with firearms. Many sportsmen consider it truly more sporting to bring down a game animal with bow and arrow than with a high powered rifle or high mass slug from a shot gun.
While bow hunters hunt with a variety of bows, most modern bows fall into one of the categories of compound, recurve, or long bow. The present invention was particularly designed to be used with modern hunting compound bows, although it is usable with any bow that includes either original equipment or add-on apparatus for holding a stabilizer thereon. Thus, while its use is not so limited, it was originally conceived as an attachment for use with a modern hunting compound bow.
As is known to bow hunters and those skilled in the art of bow design, a stabilizer attachment for a modern compound bow is a relatively massive elongated attachment that normally screws into a threaded fitting on the front of the bow's riser. Ideally, the longitudinal axis of the stabilizer is parallel to the line of travel of an arrow as it is propelled by the bow string or cable toward the target. Most stabilizers have a concentrated mass at the end distal from the bow riser. The stabilizer adds additional mass extended away from the riser gripping hand of the shooter, and thus tends to alleviate the shooter's tendency to rotate the bow about the center of force within the grip when the bow is drawn. It thus helps to stabilize the bow during aiming. Furthermore, the stabilizer adds inertia to the bow that reduces the tendency of the shooter to rotate the bow in a vertical plane when the arrow is released. Thus, the stabilizer assists in preventing movement of the bow as the bow string or cable propels the arrow from the bow and the arrow is still in contact therewith.
The motivation for the present invention was the inventor's need for a light to assist in illuminating predatory animals in the dark. It is well known to hunters that the hunting of game animals at night with the assistance of lamps and the like is illegal. Deer, for example, will tend to freeze or remain in a particular position when confronted with a bright source of light at night. However, there is no such restriction under laws regulating hunting in the United States against using an illumination device to attack predatory animals. There are many circumstances in which such an apparatus is both useful and desirable.
Many animals that prey on domesticated livestock and pets are nocturnal predators. For example, farmers in the east are well acquainted with problems of foxes attacking chickens at night. In the west, it is common to find livestock such as sheep or calves susceptible to attacks by wolves or coyotes. Many circumstances of ranching or farming make it much more desirable to hunt such animals in order to protect one's livestock using a bow rather than a firearm. The report from a firearm can startle many animals as well as human neighbors. Furthermore, if multiple predators are in the same vicinity, the report of a firearm will often scare off the remaining animals who are not under immediate attack, whereas the relative silence of a bow has neither of these drawbacks. Therefore, it is often desirable to be able to bow hunt a nocturnal predator in order to protect one's livestock, domestic pets, or even to protect human residents in non-urban areas.
When hunting a predator at night, it is very desirable to be able to maintain the predator/target in a constant state of illumination. This is for reasons both of not losing track of the target's location, but also for the possible benefit of freezing the target. While one can carry a bow with a nocked arrow, there is no practical way to maintain the illumination of the target while assuming an appropriate position for firing, extending the bow and drawing back the string or cable for firing. There are existing devices that include a battery operated lamp formed with a headband for wearing on the head, to achieve an illumination effect not unlike that of a miner's helmet. These devices are relatively heavy, tend to be uncomfortable, and can interfere with proper drawing back of the bow string. Bow shooters know that proper shooting requires the bow riser to be held at the end of a fully extended arm with the string or cable drawn back so that nock and fletching of the arrow is held next to the shooter's chin. For relatively bulky head mounted lamps, the cable or string can come in contact with the lamp interfering with the shooter's comfort. Additionally, such a shooting arrangement of necessity requires the bow to be interposed in the path of illumination between a head worn lamp and the target.
It is the need of a simple and effective way of illuminating a target for a bow hunter in the dark that led to the creation of the present invention. During the course of attacking the problem of how to make such a device, the present inventor discovered a way of combining the illumination function with the more traditional stabilizer function, thus leading to an extremely useful device for hunting predatory animals in the dark.